posted Aug 3rd, 2021 - The NSL News series of USPA's 4-way Advanced Class history featured the gold medalist of 2007, Perris Aftermath, on July 23rd. The same story also pointed out that the USPA Nationals 2007 was the beginning of a 4-way fairytale in the United States at the same time, which comes to one of its peaks very soon in Tanay, Russia.

SDC Rhythm XP, training and competing under CSC Rhythm in the first two years, did not win a USPA gold medal in 2007. After competing at the Shamrock Showdown 2007 and two meets of the Midwest Skydiving League, CSC Rhythm finished in 3rd place as a guest team at the national championships.

The USPA Advanced Class history continued a year later with CSC Rhythm winning the gold medals and scoring a new record average (16.9) in this USPA category. The new lineup without player-coach Robert Chromy (JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz, Brian Ball, Laurent Beaudouin, Kevin Nafzger on camera) attended four outdoor meets before the team's second national championship and won miles ahead of all other Advanced Class teams in October 2008.

Team founders JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz did not have to think twice what would be next. They had the highest of all goals in their mind when they launched the team project, and the only question was which lineup would follow their lead.

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USPA Nationals 2008		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Advanced	2,10,5	F,C,3,H	J,O,4,N	20,M,E,11	13,12,L	9,A,19	18,22,D	21,17,P	6,14,Q	B,1,G,7	Total	Avg
1	CSC Rhythm XP	15	19	22	16	12	21	14	16	16	18	169	16.9
2	Centerline XP	12	18	18	17	13	13	13	12	11	15	142	14.2
3	Perris Katalyst	11	16	17	13	13	15	10	12	12	14	133	13.3
4	Butta Bing	10	17	17	13	10	14	11	13	13	14	132	13.2
5	Spaceland Havoc	9	15	13	11	11	12	9	12	11	13	116	11.6
5	Ranch Fallout	10	11	14	13	10	14	9	11	10	14	116	11.6
7	Skydive Chicago Furies	9	14	13	12	9	11	7	11	11	13	110	11.0
8	Perris 4Shock	10	12	13	11	7	11	7	10	11	13	105	10.5
9	Elsinore Jedi	8	12	12	7	9	9	8	10	10	12	97	9.7
10	Elsinore Kabong	9	9	13	9	8	10	8	10	9	9	94	9.4

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Rhythm lineups between 2007 and 2021

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Of course, Rhythm continued in 2009 in 4-way Open, as the Advanced Class gold medals were only one step on the road to competing at world championships one day. Laurent Beaudouin and videographer Kevin Nafzger committed to another year with JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz, and they recruited Rob Radez for the open slot when Brian Ball could not invest the necessary time.

They made Skydive Chicago their team headquarters, and SDC Rhythm XP began preparing for the next step as a full-time skydiving team. Four Midwest Skydiving League meets later, Rhythm reached the 18+ level on the 4-way Open Class leaderboard of the next USPA Nationals in 2009, and they left former Advanced Class champion Mass Defiance behind.

Rhythm's new full-time agenda was finally too much for original members Laurent Beaudouin and Kevin Nafzger both. Thiago Gomes and Jason Imamura on camera replaced them in 2010.

Scores and placements at the USPA Nationals continued to improve in 2010 (5th - 20.5) and 2011 (4th - 21.5) and the first set of USPA 4-way Open Class medals seemed to be only a matter of time. It happened eventually when Chris Farina replaced Rob Radez in 2012. Rhythm skipped the bronze medal position with a new 23.8 team record average and owned the 2nd place at USPA Nationals ever since - until September 2019.

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USPA Nationals 2009			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		13,20,18	D,10,3	16,15,K	G,Q,L,8	B,17,21	A,N,H,P,O	1,14,M	19,12,J	5,11,C	22,9,E	Total	Avg
1	Airspeed Odyssey	US	20	21	24	28	26	44	21	21	23	23	251	25.1
2	Spaceland Force XP	US	18	23	23	25	24	45	21	20	23	22	244	24.4
3	Perris Fury	US	17	21	22	27	24	43	22	19	23	25	243	24.3
4	Golden Knights Gold	US	17	21	20	23	21	38	19	15	22	20	216	21.6
5	A4C	US	12	15	16	21	21	35	16	14	18	21	189	18.9
6	SDC Rhythm XP	US	13	17	16	20	18	35	15	13	17	17	181	18.1
7	Gradient Alpha	RU	14	13	16	18	14	33	16	15	16	17	172	17.2
8	Amphibious Attack Tigers	US	14	12	14	18	19	30	17	15	16	16	171	17.1
9	Spaceland Blue	US	14	14	14	19	17	26	16	14	16	16	166	16.6
9	Sebastian Tempest	US	13	17	16	17	18	28	15	14	16	12	166	16.6
11	Voluntas	DK	13	14	15	15	16	29	17	14	16	14	163	16.3
12	Elsinore BTE	US	13	14	15	17	14	24	15	13	12	14	151	15.1
13	Black	AU	11	12	10	15	15	19	11	11	12	13	129	12.9
14	Golden Knights Black	US	7	13	13	12	10	21	12	9	-	-	97	12.1
15	LOL	US	7	8	8	8	9	13	9	7	8	10	87	8.7
16	Ranch Delivery	US	4	7	9	5	9	11	5	8	8	8	74	7.4

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The Rhythm situation between 2012 and 2015 has been well documented by the NSL News. The reliable runner-up at the USPA Nationals lost team members regularly when Arizona Airspeed had personnel changes. JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz eventually found former Carolina Turbo members Andrew Happick and Doug Barron, who were ready to stay for longer and challenge the institution of Arizona Airspeed.

The new lineup launched their team project in 2016 and would now be in their 6th year. In 2019, SDC Rhythm XP became the first USPA Advanced Class champions who continued in 4-way Open to win the national 4-way Open Class title and compete for the United States at world championships.

It is not the same lineup though who travel to Russia this month. JaNette Lefkowitz, who won the 4-way Open Class title in 2019, had to step back, and Christy Frikken has taken her slot, as the NSL News reported on 19 May 2020. However, SDC Rhythm XP compete for the U.S. delegation at a world championship, which JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz have been dreaming of when they launched the team project in 2007.

At least one of Rhythm's USPA Advanced Class champions of 2008, Steve Lefkowitz, will board the world meet plane for Round 1 next week on Tuesday - together with two USPA Advanced Class champions of 2010. And that's another Advanced Class story...